DCC no longer cutting grass verges, reasoning…..biodiversity.

SuperBowserWorld · 14-08-2023 9:33am

Yep, if money is saved and used elsewhere then all good. They probably need to state how much they save and where it's going.

Anyway.

Shoog · 14-08-2023 9:43am

It is partly about saving money, DCC and fingal has one of the best biodiversity officers in the country and he gets to promote and achieve biodiversity initiatives because they save money for the council. This doesn't mean that his primary focus isn't achieving biodiversity improvement,which he has achieved extremely successfully.

It's rediciulously expensive to achieve manicured lawns across the whole county and it's the public who pays for that effort.

ZookeeperDub · 14-08-2023 9:46am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975300#Comment_120975300

Taking Fingal, millennium park in Blanchardstown which I used to live beside always had huge section which was left uncut, you had walk walks around and one through it but it was left going back years ago now. At end of year I think, could be wrong, they used to cut for hay or something like that

magicbastarder · 14-08-2023 9:49am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975300#Comment_120975300

i don't think DCC and fingal share a biodiversity officer? the biodiversity officer for DCC is not a man anyway.

pixelburp · 14-08-2023 9:59am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975300#Comment_120975300

It's rediciulously expensive to achieve manicured lawns across the whole county and it's the public who pays for that effort

If I ruled the world, the first thing nuked by this ageing lefty would be golf clubs and their outrageous waste of rural land, water and resources so middle class twits can pretend to keep fit. Obviously most are private companies so we're not paying for it monetarily, but broadly? Tear em down, plant some trees, make some parks and build new towns and communities.

I seem to remember... Utah, maybe Arizona(?) put a ban on wasting water to maintain areas of grass deemed without purpose. Of course golf clubs were one of the exceptions that were allowed to continue to use water as they see fit.

14-08-2023 10:00am

We are experiencing several extinction events in Ireland currently

14-08-2023 2:01pm

I would like to see them reforrest alot of the countryside with native trees. I'm not talking about just planting spruce like in wicklow.

techman1 · 14-08-2023 2:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120969530#Comment_120969530

I think that's what's really behind it, lawns and green areas are bourgeois to the new elites in power. Its not actually about biodiversity at all .

It's like with communist ideology they deliberately designed buildings to be ugly because beautiful buildings were regarded as bourgeois and they wanted to wipe all that away.

I did a communist tour in Budapest a few years ago and we were standing in a pleasant park with trees. The guide then shows us a picture of what it was like in the 70s , it was covered in concrete and used as a carpark. The Communist regime deliberately ripped up the park because that was bourgeois. It was done deliberately for ideological reasons.

Similar ideology now biodiversity is being used as an excuse to wipe away the old order.

newmember2 · 14-08-2023 2:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120976568#Comment_120976568

"Similar ideology now biodiversity is being used as an excuse to wipe away the old order."

That 'old order' was killing us, so is being replaced by an even older 'order'.

magicbastarder · 14-08-2023 2:14pm

good god, and i had thought this thread had already jumped the shark.

pixelburp · 14-08-2023 2:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120976568#Comment_120976568

Similar ideology now biodiversity is being used as an excuse to wipe away the old order.

"The old order" being ... ?

Shoog · 14-08-2023 2:44pm

Its bizarre when people see a plot around every corner, sure "letting the grass grow is a greeny plot to take over our minds".

Bat-**** crazy stuff.

Strumms · 14-08-2023 2:50pm

Maybe the government will put some sort of environmental tax on utilities such as lawnmowers… discouraging the levels of grass cutting on private land.

Plus my neighbours who attend to the occasional verge mowing and tending of verges and grass / rubbish cleanup on the road may be in the future, liable to arrest or other sanction 🙄

magicbastarder · 14-08-2023 2:59pm

good god people, you're not far from 'our cold dead hands' ranting.

pixelburp · 14-08-2023 4:01pm

The irony is those who rant about the "loony left" environmental types always end up managing to look and sound the most lunatic of all.

SuperBowserWorld · 14-08-2023 4:09pm

It's mad to think that everything can be reduced to left and right as if we lived in a one dimensional universe. 🙄

John_Rambo · 14-08-2023 4:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977242#Comment_120977242

Yeah, I'm just reading back on my posts. What was I thinking when I said I noticed an increase in insects, butterflies, moths & birds. You all must think I'm foaming at the mouth here.

Strumms · 14-08-2023 4:15pm

Not much lunatic in a neighbourhood and citizens that has an absolute abundance of green spaces, trees, parks… expecting the DCC just to continue to tend to grass verges…. The same citizens installed flower beds on the corner of local green. had to as the DCC did not want to….but acceded to the locals doing so. Locals doing 1000% more then the DCC 😉

pixelburp · 14-08-2023 4:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977284#Comment_120977284

You'd also think "let's keep the world vaguely habitable, clean and healthy" would be a cause that'd transcend political leanings - yet here we are. To my mind it's like somehow simply breathing has become seen as lefty, liberal and a hoax by some.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977293#Comment_120977293

You had mentioned it and it is true: there are more bees, insects and whatnot around these days. As I said myself the look of wee kids watching them with awe and fascination is reward in of itself.

magicbastarder · 14-08-2023 4:39pm

speaking of not cutting grass, we did no mow may on our front lawn, and for the first time ever this year, we got a twayblade in the lawn - a common enough orchid, but definitely not common in our garden.

worth mentioning that the soil in the lawn is quite poor; i have fertilised it with something akin to the below, trying to get rid of the moss, maybe once every three years - but it's still full of weeds. i've never used a conventional weedkiller on it.

https://www.homeland.ie/garden/lawncare/organic/81347/mo-bactor-moss-remover-20kg

14-08-2023 4:42pm

It’s a bit weird that they are still actively cutting grass and maintaining verges in a huge park like St Anne’s, but letting weeds and grass grow on footpaths and roads in the estates beside it. Like it’s got to the stage where it might be dangerous for a person with mobility issues.

Surely they should rewild/ meadow parts of the park, and maintain areas where it’s just nonnative weeds and grass growing anyway.

That’s just one example as I was there over the weekend.

SuperBowserWorld · 14-08-2023 4:43pm

A relative usually cuts the **** out of her lawn and it usually looked hacked to ****. This year she left it, only cutting it a couple of times. She had a beautiful front meadow for 3 months with all kinds of flowers in it. Now she has a beautiful lawn again. And with 1/4 the effort. 😁

14-08-2023 4:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058308946/dcc-no-longer-cutting-grass-verges-reasoning-biodiversity

What the hell is wrong with that image? It's perfectly trimmed at path side and looks fantastic further in

Akrasia · 14-08-2023 4:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120968824#Comment_120968824

Its not a made up word. Up until very recently, most of the land on earth was populated by a diverse collection of different plants, insects, fungi, mammals, birds etc

Then we invented chemical pesticides and started selling grass seed by the sack, tilled the soil and planted 'lawns' which are basically, a single species of grass with little or no tolerance for wildflowers or native plants, all kept short through regular cutting throughout the growing season

This cuts out so many parts of the life cycle for so many different types of life that can not survive under those conditions

Akrasia · 14-08-2023 4:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120969888#Comment_120969888

Brighter concrete would help to cool the local environment, and reflect some of the suns energy back to space

Darker coloured concrete/tarmac absorbs more heat, and then releases it back as infra red radiation and so would be worse if the objective is to reduce the effects of global warming

Seth Brundle · 14-08-2023 4:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977415#Comment_120977415

We did the same and whilst we had no weeds, we had plenty of "weeds" principally dandelions which were enjoyed by bees and other insects along with goldfinches and bull finches. We also had ragwort growing which I was content leaving until we got a puppy a month ago who loves eating anything and everything!

magicbastarder · 14-08-2023 5:03pm

i also put a pond in our front garden (we live on a busy road in dublin) and now i have to be careful cutting the grass for fear of hitting frogs (or froglets - they can be tiny).

awec · 14-08-2023 5:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120966868#Comment_120966868

Yea, but it only looks like it is in the picture for a little while. Then it just turns into a total mess. Full of rubbish and nettles, thistles etc.

The local council here introduced a grass verge on one of the roads and let it grow wild. It looked ok for a while, and then just turned to pure ****. They ended up just having to mow it.

If they want to actually maintain a wildflower meadow that's ok, but maintain is the key word. They still need to lift all the rubbish out of them, they need to dig out the inevitable undesirable crap that's gonna grow. If they want to plant a load of trees go for it.

Just stopping cutting and letting it go wild is pure laziness / cost saving, and not suitable for areas that are accessible to members of the public. And cutting a little strip along the path is not maintenance either...

Fighting Tao · 14-08-2023 5:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977546#Comment_120977546

So the real issue is people littering. Maybe some of the money saved should be spent on litter enforcement.

awec · 14-08-2023 5:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120977572#Comment_120977572

No, the real issue is not people littering.

DCC no longer cutting grass verges, reasoning…..biodiversity.

Comments